Welcome back warriors, I would like to go over some high and low points in the video you just watched. As you can see we start with an officer interviewing a woman about an accident, and from there it gets interesting.
The officer on the scene can tell the male suspect is very agitated so she radios in for assistance, as she should. You can see that the suspect is becoming more aggressive and irrational. At this point, you can tell the officer is doing her best to keep him calm. But what you have to watch out for here is the way the suspect hands keep going into his pockets. This is a very dangerous moment for the officer, and all though she is trying to calm down the suspect she needs to be aware of where the suspect’s hands are. I understand at this point if you start giving commands you risk escalating the situation, but your safety as an officer comes ahead of that.
Boom! In the blink of an eye, this normal traffic accident just turned into a felony. And the officer was ready for it. Some people might wonder if she had to go straight for her gun. To this I refer back from one of my previous assessments, we talked about the “ladder of Force”. This officer was dealing with a physically bigger suspect, by herself, and if allowed to put his hands on the officer the suspect could have caused her serious bodily harm or even killed her. So yes I see no problem with her drawing her firearm.
So now the suspect has it in his head he is ready to die by suicide by cop. You can see the officer try to get the suspect to comply with her orders but he is having none of it. In fact the opposite he is aggressively moving towards the officer. Now let me say this for the officer, it is very apparent that she doesn’t want to shoot this suspect. And I say this because he is trying to give her every justification just about to pull the trigger.
So now her backup arrives on the scene. If it wasn’t such a tense situation you could almost say his entrance was comical. Let me say this if I was the officer requesting back up I would like to see a little more hustle from my fellow officer. But once he did get out of the car I have to say he got the suspect to comply like a boss. He immediately dealt with the threat, and that without a doubt that is what you have to do!
Now we come to the last thing I want to bring to your attention. The suspects have been apprehended, the scene is safe, there is no reason to rush the search. It was like he just going through the motions. I find that highly unacceptable. It screams complacency, and complacency breeds failure. I don’t want to see any of you fail.
Well, that wraps up this assessment. I would love to hear any questions or comments. I’m doing this for you guys so don’t be afraid to reach out. And as always be safe out there.
